Saudi Journal of Engineering and Technology (SJEAT)
Volume-3 | Issue-04 | 228-237
Original Research Article
Object-Oriented Design (OOD) Consideration in the Design and Deployment of Agent-Based Patient Appointment and Scheduling System (APASS): A Case of University of Calabar Medical Center
Ele, Sylvester I, Ofem OA, Obono I. Ofem
Published : April 30, 2018
Abstract
The University Medical Center which currently runs a manual system for
the management and maintenance of its critical information also operate an
Outpatient Department in which non-urgent patients arrives for consultation with the
problem of patients‘ long waiting time. This scenario has resulted to certain
impediment ion terms of service rendering, including difficulty in accessing data due
to improper keeping of patient details; delay in attending to patients on emergency
which could lead to case complications as well as death of the patient; Lack of an
effective Doctor-Patients appointment coordination; and more so, the few Doctors
and Nurses could be overworked. The aim of this research project is to develop an
Agent-Based Appointment Management System that will improve the medical
center‘s efficiency in health services provision and reduce outpatient waiting time
without adding extra resources. With the introduction of appointment system, the
result has shown that average waiting time could be reduced by thirty-seven to forthfour percent as compared to the current status. Object Oriented Analysis and Design
Methodology (OOAD) were adopted in the design for the Design and development of
the proposed system. The proposed system was implemented using PHP, AJAX,
HTML programming technologies. MYSQL was used as the database engine in
XAMP server. The hospital appointment and scheduling system was tested using
several test data by stakeholders and error correction was carried out.